Some might say the writing was on the wall all summer what with Liam Gallagher critiquing his brother's dress sense ("He's got an old man vibe going on, our kid, big woolly jumpers and shit like that and cardigans ... Terry Wogan, Val Doonican shit") and apparently worse; others that the split could have happened at any point over the past 15 years. In the end it was on 28 August, 2009, that Noel announced that he was leaving Oasis for good. The reason? "I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer."

It's an event that for all its predictability - plus the suspicion that Definitely Maybe remained their classic - still left fans feeling let down. But as for the group's detractors, they made hay in the "sunshiiiine": "A vulgar, meretricious phenomenon which owed far more to marketing and spin than genuine talent," according to the Daily Mail. Better to remember them for what they really were: the best rock'n'roll band of their generation.

Talking in August 1994, backstage at Top of the Pops with Live Forever, Noel said: "It's all about ambition ... we want to be an important band. Making music for a closet full of people in Bradford doesn't mean anything. Phil Collins has to be chased out of the charts, Wet Wet Wet and all that. The only way is to get in there amongst them, stamp the fuckers out."

Back then, that was the battleground. Putative rivals such as Blur only merited gentle condescension and as for Liam: "The thing about brothers is ... me and him ... we can't bullshit each other because we've known each other for too long." But then he did add: "Brothers are always competitive. Aren't they?"